Space Toy

What is the toy (1968? 69?): an astronaut (battery pack) that plugged into space capsule and lunar rover?

The astronaut was a blocky little guy who functioned as a battery pack. Plugging the astronaut into the space capsule or lunar rover then powered their motors and they moved, spun, whatever. I got it for Christmas in the late 1960s and would love to know what it was called and who made it.

Oh, man did you just bring back memories! I had that too, it was COOL!

I wish I could help you more, but I don’t remember the name of it either. However, since I am a professional toy inventor/engineer, I will start poking around and asking questions. If you extend the answer period for this question I will be more likely to be able to get back to you with the answer.

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My buddy Tom, a fellow toy inventor/designer, says the following (my edits to his reply are in [square brackets]):

“Okay. This is easy. TWO CHOICES:

A) Major Matt Mason! Mattel’s Man-In-Space. He was a bendy (wire framed) action figure with a white space suit, who I had as a kid growing up in the Apollo space flight era. He had accessories galore! A couple of alien friends that fetch $600 on eBay. There was several moon rovers [... better described as] battery powered crawlers. He did not have a battery powered back pack. It has nylon black string that tangled into everything. But VERY neat space designs. I swear NASA got involved with these toys. One of my all time favs of the 1960′s.

B) Billy Blast Off! I could be wrong but… there is another less popular space toy of the late sixties. Billy Blast Off of Ideal Toys [My note: web research says B.B.O. was from Eldon Toys, not Ideal]. A Fisher/Price looking little round pudge of an astronaut boy who had a space sled that he powered up. Billy did have a back pack which was the battery case and yes, it did power his little white sled with fins [...] it was a straight line thing [runs in a straight line, no steering or remote control]. My money is on BILLY BLAST OFF! Hard to find but shows up on eBay once in a while.

Take your pick! Hope this helps.”

Toy Robot in Space! – HD balloon flight to 95000ft